Three Russian parachutists set a world record last week by jumping from the Earth’s stratosphere to the North Pole. The mission also served as a test of a new prototype communications system for use in the Arctic. The parachutists landed near Russia’s Barneo polar base after hurling themselves from an Ilyushin-76 plane at a height of 10,500 meters.
The descent was captured in a spectacular video, with the parachutists spending about two and a half minutes in freefall before opening their chutes 1,000 meters above the ground. Despite wearing heated masks, all three parachutists suffered some frostbite to their cheeks during the descent. Plunging at over 300 km/h, the air temperature around -50 degrees Celsius felt like -70 degrees Celsius to them.
Communications in the Arctic are becoming increasingly important as nations compete for resources, trade routes, and military advantage. The Russians were able to send data via an experimental system, which, while not as advanced as U.S.-based Iridium Communications Inc., was a step in the right direction. The managing partner and co-founder of Russian hosting provider RUVDS, Nikita Tsaplin, noted that the goal was to explore the possibility of building a low-cost solution for accessing satellites from computers. This prototype system demonstrated that some progress had been made towards achieving that goal.